Huckabee First to Answer 10 Questions

Earlier this week, I did two stories (here and here) on 10questions.com, a site where citizens post questions for the candidates, and vote on the answers they receive. Well, voting on the Top 10 questions is closed, and Republican Senator and candidate Mike Huckabee has already submitted his answers. I think he deserves major props for not only being first, but actually having his answers up before the answer round even started. This is evidence that Huckabee’s populism may be more than a gimmick.

The answers themselves were fascinating, to say the least. Huckabee respects atheists more than some Christians, seems to favor medical marijuana in pill form, and favors campaign reform abstractly. You can watch his answers below, and we’ll discuss. (There are only 9 answers, as one of the question videos was deleted before Huckabee could respond).

One thing I found slightly amusing was the order of priorities on the internet. Net neutrality, I get. The next 2 highest vote totals were for pretty much the same question, basically “What about the atheists?”, so they picked one of them. Number 3 was about medical marijuana, then warrantless wiretapping. The individual questions have great merit, but in the aggregate, they paint kind of a funny picture, don’t they?, that the net is populated by godless, pot-smoking blogger paranoiacs. Fair enough.

Huckabee’s answers were thoughtful, to be sure, but short on specifics. He basically restated each question, gave a thoughtful analysis, then failed to say what he would do about it. I suspect a lot of the candidates will fail the test of whether they really answered the question.

On the first question, he favors a “level playing field”, but stopped short of reaffirming Net Neutrality. I was impressed by his answer to the 2nd question, particularly where he says he respects atheists with conviction over Christians without. I don’t think he really understood the question, though. It wasn’t about the right to practice religion, it was about the right to be free of it’s influence in public life.

The medical marijuana question produced the most amusing answer. Huckabee says he thinks it’s OK if a doctor were to prescribe it in “pill form”, or something else “less recreational.” I guess he doesn’t know that currently, legal pain medicines are given in lollipop form. He misses the point that if a DOCTOR says you need it, you ought to be able to get it. He also says if we don’t like it, change the laws. Well, we have, but the Federal Government disregards them.

i liked his answer to question #7 the best. He didn’t really answer her question, but he suggested that Americans have access to every government financial transaction, over the internet, in real time. I like that idea a lot. Wouldn’t it be great to go over Jeff Gannon’s invoices?

After watching Huckabee’s answers, I must say that I am impressed with him as a man. He lived up to his reputation as a straight-shooter, as politicians go. Our deep philosophical differences would prevent me from voting for him, but if I had to vote for a Republican, he would look pretty good to me based on these answers. Tell me what you think, and tell me who’s answers you’re most looking forward to. I think Ron Paul ought to be fun.